Things Are Looking Up for Asteroid Mining
Asteroids are rich with the metals used in clean energy technologies. As demand soars, advocates argue that mining them in space might be better than mining them on Earth......»»
What’s new on Amazon Prime Video in December 2023
Asteroid City, Sound of Freedom, and Reacher season 2 are landing on Amazon Prime Video in December 2023, and then it's bombs away on Christmas with The Flash......»»
Study shows unexpected expansion of rare earth element mining activities in Myanmar-China border region
As the demand for rare earth elements increases world-wide, so too do the mining activities associated with rare earth element extraction. Rare earth elements are listed as 15 elements on the periodic table constituting what is known as the lanthanid.....»»
Detoxifying gold mining
Jacqueline "Jackie" Gerson knows very well how "artisanal gold mining" sounds to people who haven't heard the phrase before......»»
Contact binary asteroids are common, but we"ve never seen one form. Now, researchers want to make one
Ever want to play a game of cosmic billiards? That's commonly how the DART mission was described when it successfully changed the orbit of a near-Earth asteroid last year. If you want an idea of how it works, just Google it and an Easter egg from the.....»»
A showdown over deep sea mining is taking place in the Pacific
Activists from Greenpeace International have boarded a ship that is conducting deep sea mining research in the Pacific Ocean, vowing to occupy the vessel until it abandons the expedition......»»
If you"re trying to prevent an asteroid impact, the technical and political challenges are staggering
While preparing for the threat of an asteroid strike might seem like a hypothetical exercise, it's really not. The solar system has calmed down a lot from earlier times when impacts were more frequent. But it is only a matter of time before an astero.....»»
Sand mining in Vietnam"s Mekong Delta sinks homes, livelihoods
One summer morning, Le Thi Hong Mai's home collapsed into a river in Vietnam's Mekong Delta, where shoreline erosion caused by sand mining and hydropower dams threatens hundreds of thousands of people......»»
What"s behind the toxic levels of mercury in tropical birds? Gold mining, study shows
The tropics are home to more than 75% of all species and are projected to support 50% of the world's human population by mid-century, but little is known about mercury pollution in these life-filled regions......»»
How waste from the mining industry has perpetuated apartheid-like policies in South Africa
While apartheid—South Africa's brutal racial segregation laws of the 20th century—officially came to an end in the early 1990s, its harmful effects persist today, says Stanford historian Gabrielle Hecht in her new book, "Residual Governance: How.....»»
Testing of citizen scientist discovery suggests it is on the boundary between comet and asteroid
A team of space scientists, astronomers and astrophysicists affiliated with multiple institutions across the U.S., working with a colleague from Italy, has determined that a celestial object spotted by citizen scientists back in 2016 is neither a com.....»»
Hera asteroid mission completes acoustic testing
ESA's Hera asteroid mission has completed acoustic testing, confirming the spacecraft can withstand the sound of its own lift-off into orbit. Testing took place within the Agency's Large European Acoustic Facility at the ESTEC Test Center in the Neth.....»»
Water on asteroid Ryugu"s parent found to have shaped distribution of its elements
A large international team of space scientists, geochemists, and engineers, has found that water that existed on the parent of Ryugu had an impact on the distribution of elements on the asteroid. In their paper published in the journal Science Advanc.....»»
Lucy’s asteroid surprise: ‘we never suspected anything so bizarre’
NASA's Lucy mission recently passed by a small asteroid called Dinkinesh, which turned out to be a fascinating system all of its own......»»
Speeding NASA spacecraft finds a surprise within a surprise
NASA's Lucy spacecraft captured footage of a surprise binary asteroid, and then discovered that the surprise asteroid is also a double asteroid, specifically a "contact binary" asteroid. As NASA's Lucy probe sped by the asteroid Dinkinesh at 10.....»»
How to make asteroid landings safer
Landing safely on an asteroid is no mean feat. Despite several recent successes, there have also been notable failures—most famously, the Philae lander to 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Admittedly, that was an attempt to land on a comet rather than an.....»»
Daily Telescope: Lucy continues to surprise astronomers with its first flyby
"We never suspected anything so bizarre!" Enlarge / This image shows the asteroid Dinkinesh and its satellite as seen by the Lucy Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (L’LORRI) as NASA’s Lucy Spacecraft departed the system. (cre.....»»
Dimorphos is probably a piece of Didymos
Last September, NASA purposefully smashed a spacecraft into Dimorphos, a 160m-wide space rock orbiting a larger asteroid named Didymos. The goal of the mission, called DART (the Double Asteroid Redirection Test), was to demonstrate humanity's ability.....»»
NASA spacecraft discovers tiny moon around asteroid during close flyby
The little asteroid visited by NASA's Lucy spacecraft this week had a big surprise for scientists......»»
NASA’s first asteroid-sampling mission continues on to a new target
NASA's OSIRIS-REx recently dropped off a sample from asteroid Bennu, and now it will continue on to a new target: asteroid Apophis......»»
In US capital, selfies with asteroid hinting at Earth"s origins
In a hushed room of a museum in Washington, cameras and cell phones focus on a tiny piece of rock, no larger than a piece of gravel......»»